Guilty Pleasures »

Remember those Filipino prisoners who became YouTube sensations for their staged version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller," complete with a cross-dressing inmate playing MJ's terrified girlfriend? After delighting the world with their forced renditions of numbers from Sister Act and "YMCA," the dancers are back...and they've apparently joined forces with Sony Pictures to help promote the 2010 DVD release of the MJ documentary This Is It.

On paper, the idea of merging the pop cultural firepower of Michael Jackson's posthumous hit documentary with that one prison in the Philippines where inmates are forced to learn cool dances sounds like an awesome idea, if a little bizarre. And for once, the army of orange-pantsed convicts have been filmed with panache – in crisp high def, with multiple cameras and swooping crane shots. But as you watch choreographer Travis Payne and dancers Daniel Celebre and Dres Reid lead 1500 or so of Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in a selection of numbers from Jackson's planned This Is It concert tour, the whole thing starts to feel a little icky.

Lots of families have movie-going rituals for the holidays, whether it's siblings banding together to escape after mom and dad have hit the hay or families who prefer to celebrate the holidays in the dark with a bucket of popcorn and the latest glitzy - and hopefully cheery - studio offerings, occasionally with Chinese food afterwards.

My family hits the theater on Christmas day or thereabouts and sometimes we've picked winners and sometimes - the more memorable ones, unfortunately - we've picked some doozies. I'll admit I enjoyed seeing My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Rumor Has It, The Holiday, The Pursuit of Happyness, and other fuzzy flicks with my loved ones during the winter holidays. However, one year my mom and I went to see The Family Stone thinking it would be a fluffy comedy slash love story slash playfully warm family film, as it had been marketed: Sarah Jessica Parker plays the typical Type A businesswoman who goes to spend Christmas with her boyfriend's quirky family in suburbia and loosens up. She gets a snowball in the face, eggnog is drunk, secrets are told, harmless drama occurs but everyone makes up over the dinner table, and so on.

The other day I watched My Life in Ruins out of curiosity and because I was bored. In the past, I've been quite cynical about the movie and Nia Vardalos's upcoming film I Hate Valentine's Day, but when all was said and done, I was a captive audience. And you know what? I like Nia Vardalos. I want to root for her. But it was in spite of myself that not only did I like it... I cried.

Yes, despite the hackneyed plot – woman uproots her life, is cranky and miserable and loveless, then gets her groove back, along with a hunky fellow; despite the use of every possible ethnic and sexual stereotype possible; despite a love interest whose name is Poupi Kakas; and despite the complete lack of innovation in terms of the romantic comedy genre.... I liked it. And I cried. And I was very embarrassed.

I cry at a lot of movies, which is awkward, since I see a lot of movies, often with colleagues, friends, and publicists. After seeing The Fall, which I adored, another viewer asked me if I was okay. I bawled during the excellent movie Bright Star, although I am 99 percent sure everyone else did too. I even cried during Seven Pounds, one of the most ludicrous and manipulative "feel-good" movies I've ever had the trauma of sitting through. And after seeing The Family Stone one Christmas, hoping for the light-hearted comedy that the trailers promised, I left the theater dazed and angry at how mean-spirited and sad it was.

There are certain things that set me off, but even the lamest Sunday afternoon guilty pleasure can get me sniffling.

Are you a movie crier? Which movies have you cried at? (No need to get gory with whys and wherefores.) Were you in a public theater? What do you do when you start tearing up (or sobbing)?

So if you've spent more than three or four nights at Austin's Alamo Drafthouse theater (Ritz or South Lamar, take your pick), then you're already somewhat familiar with the movie mania that pours out of the place(s). Well, a good deal of that geekery comes from on high, starting with Head Alamofo Tim League and leading directly to his lunatic lieutenants Lars Nilsen and Zack Carlson.

Aside from being ridiculously nice guys who love really weird things like Ball Rooms and Doris Wishman movies, Zack and Lars can often combine, not unlike the Wonder Twins, and create the biggest movie geek you've ever seen. All the pre-show Alamo stuff? These guys. All the wacky trivia shows, cult-favorite guest appearances, and sleazoid extravaganzas? Zack and Lars. Hell, they even have days of the week to call their own: Terror Tuesdays are all Zack's and Weird Wednesdays are Nilsen's domain. Yes, this is how I talk about all my friends. Especially when they concoct something like Cinemapocalypse! A whole bunch of old-school, sticky-floor, grindhouse-level C-grade movies hand-picked by Zack and Lars, and soon to be touring all across the left-hand side of the nation.

A flick through the event's official blog indicates that there'll be no shortage of sweaty cinema to sift through -- but of course I'll name my favorites: Oooh, a double feature of Vice Squad and Tourist Trap. Bring it on. Bill Lustig's Vigilante, followed by the outrageous Raw Force and the undeniably awesome Escape from New York? Dear lord, that's fun. Chained Heat, Gator Bait, AND The Return of the Alien's Deadly Spawn? Ugh, now that's just unfair. For a whole lot more on this event, the flicks at hand, the venues to invade, please do point your browser on the Cinemapocalypse blog and tell 'em Weinberg sent you. (I get slightly discounted sodas if you tell 'em I sent you.)

Before I talk about a "guilty pleasures" list, I'll start with the same disclaimer that everyone starts with when they talk about a "guilty pleasures" list: When it comes to entertainment, there shouldn't be any such thing as a guilty pleasure. If something is bad in an entertaining way, and you enjoy it, then so what? Just because you're enjoying it for reasons other than what the filmmaker intended (e.g., laughing at a movie that was supposed to be scary) doesn't mean you need to feel guilty about it. Now, if you tried to convince people that the movie is good -- not so-bad-it's-good, but actually GOOD -- well, then maybe your friends would question your taste. But hey, don't feel guilty. Let your freak flag fly!

Now then. The handsome devils at Moviefone asked readers what their favorite guilty pleasures are, and what do you know, the readers gave them some. Most of the nominated titles are ones that very few people would defend as being legitimately good, but that apparently lots of people are able to enjoy for other reasons: Battlefield Earth (pictured), Crossroads, Coyote Ugly, etc.

Having recently re-watched Anaconda for research purposes (really!), I agree with its inclusion on the list. It fails utterly at what it was trying to do, but it sure makes me laugh, particularly Jon Voight's campy performance that sounds like Christopher Walken mixed with Zorro.

The readers offer explanations for their choices, too. For example, on Howard the Duck, "Lisa41794" says, "Lea Thompson and alien duck have sex. What's more entertaining than that ... lol." What's more entertaining than that lol indeed, Lisa41794!

Check out the list and photo gallery to see what else made the list. And feel free to tell us what your favorite guilty pleasures are in the comments below.

I have an issue with year-end best-of lists. Or, I should say I have an issue with making them, myself. Every year I think about giving in to the tradition, but then I stop myself when I realize that I haven't seen enough movies. There are the last-minute releases of late December to wait for. There are films I missed earlier in the year that haven't yet arrived on DVD. And ever since I took a hiatus from reviewing films, it has gotten worse, because I see fewer movies than I normally do. Typically I don't discover my favorite pic of a given year until the following year or later.

So, rather than write up a list that may change tomorrow or the next day or 10 years from now, I've decided to reflect on the bad movies I saw. I've definitely seen more bad movies than good movies, anyway. But rather than make a list of the worst of '06 -- I probably haven't seen the real worst any more than I've seen the best -- I fondly recalled the movies that were crap, but were enjoyable, nonetheless.

Some of the movies on my list are wholly guilty pleasures, while others have one or two specific aspects that I found more guiltily pleasurable than the movie itself.

• 10.) Cobra Starship's 'Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)' video from Snakes on a Plane - Sure, Snakes on a Plane is a guilty pleasure -- it was made to be. But it is just too obvious to mention it as a whole, and anyway it really wasn't as enjoyable as it should have been or was meant to be. The music video during the movie's credits, though, is another story. In my opinion it overshadows the actual movie by a long shot. It may be as self-consciously intent on producing irony and camp, but it succeeds where SOAP doesn't. Maybe because it is catchy, maybe because the band looks like a parody of contemporary hipster bands, or maybe because it is shorter -- I am far more likely to return to the video for a good laugh than to the movie (not that I'll turn off the movie on a lazy Sunday with nothing better to do; it is still a guilty pleasure, itself).

With the remake of Black Christmas due to hit theaters on Christmas day, here's another yuletide horror flick from the early 70s that deserves to be rediscovered. Silent Night, Bloody Night doesn't play up the holiday connection nearly as much as the aforementioned Black Christmas, or the killer Santa movie Silent Night, Deadly Night, but it is a grim little grade-z body count movie with some great atmosphere, genuine suspense, and above-average acting. If the feel-good holiday stuff is getting to be too much for you, then this movie should help you gain some perspective. Also, since Silent Night, Bloody Night was released in 1973 (according to The Overlook Film Encyclopedia horror edition, which contradicts IMDb), and the film itself sports a 1972 copyright, it looks like this film beat Black Christmas to the horror holiday game by at least a year.

Yup it's the holiday season, and while The Specials is not a Holiday movie, it is an oddly endearing comedy about family, albeit a dysfunctional "family" of superheroes. The Specials are the world's sixth or seventh greatest superhero team. According to the film's opening scrawl, they have spent many a day fighting both natural disasters and super villains, but today is not one of those days. This is because -- with the exception of a brief CGI sequence -- the film's meager budget does not allow the characters to demonstrate their amazing powers. What we are left with is a day or so in the life of a superhero team struggling for respectability, and it seems they're on the verge of attaining it. Kosgro Toys is about to unveil its new line of Specials action figures, which will finally put them in the same league as The Crusaders, The Annihilators, and The Anti-Evil Gang.

The team's newest member is Night Bird (Jordan Ladd), a plucky young lass with bird powers and wide-eyed idealism. We meet most of the team members as she does, and they are, at best, a quirky bunch. The group is lead by the laser-shooting Strobe, played with Shatner-esque nuances and supreme arrogance by Thomas Haden Church (who switches sides and becomes a super villain in Spider-man 3). The Strobe's wife, Ms. Indestructible, played by Paget Brewster, is carrying on an illicit affair with the team's most popular member The Weevil, played by Rob Lowe. Following a truly disastrous roll-out of The Specials' action figures, Strobe learns of the affair and dissolves the team.

Take a healthy dose of The Poseidon Adventure, mix it with an unconvincing (but still effective) dash of Indiana Jones-ism, sprinkle the concoction with a goofy sense of humor -- and then throw in a whole lot of guns, gore and amazingly goopy creatures. Voila! You've just made a movie that's just as good as Stephen Sommers' Deep Rising! (Heck, maybe better!)

Starring the rectangle-jawed and entirely likeable Treat Williams as a typically rascally hero-guy, the never-more-beautiful Famke Janssen as a mega-sexy thief, and a whole bunch of colorful character actors who are given maybe eight lines of dialogue and one personality trait apiece, Deep Rising is the flick Sommers made before he hit the big-time with his off-kilter rendition of The Mummy -- which he promptly followed up with two certifiable dung-heaps: The Migraine Returns and the unwatchable Van Hellstink. (Prior to Deep Rising, Sommers directed a pair of flicks for Disney: The Adventures of Huck Finn and The Jungle Book.)

So that's six whole movies that Stephen Sommers has written/directed, and yet the only one I can go back to for repeat viewings is 1998's Deep Rising. Ostensibly a monster movie in a disaster flick suit, DR benefits from a quick pace, a good deal of action, some strong doses of very visual viscera and a bunch of actors who are clearly playing the piece with tongue planted firmly in cheek. You want to talk about plotholes, lackluster editing and a general lack of actual story, I'd listen and probably agree; Deep Rising is a genre flick that wears its glitches firmly on its sleeve (and some of the CGI is really weak) but it still moves forward with such playful abandon that I'm more than willing to overlook the rough spots (most of which arrive in Act III and during a powerfully chintzy-looking epilogue) and just enjoy the flick as snack food for the cerebellum.

Plus it stands as a reminder that Sommers can get a little gritty and nasty sometimes ... when he's not beholden to a $200 million budget and forever chasing the Holy Grail that is the PG-13 rating.

I did not realize until I posted a Vintage Image of the Day for Shock Treatment that the "not a sequel" to The Rocky Horror Picture Show was one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Two days after I posted the photo, I bought the DVD and threw out my old VHS copy, so I can enjoy the highest resolution, most gorgeous images and sound possible when I indulge my secret love for the 1981 cult classic.

In my Vintage Image of the Day post, I called Shock Treatment the sequel to Rocky Horror. As others have noted, this isn't strictly true. However, some of the characters are the same. Remember Brad Majors and Janet Weiss? (Keep your audience-participation nicknames to yourself.) In Shock Treatment, the happy couple is now married, but something's wrong with their relationship, something they themselves can't quite express. The characters are played by different actors -- Cliff De Young and Jessica Harper take over the roles held by Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon in Rocky Horror. On the other hand, cast members from the first movie also appear in Shock Treatment, but as different characters.